How to get a 2yr old to settle at night

[mumtorobbie]

Two months ago we moved our 2 year old DS into a bed. For the first few nights he was fine but now its a battle to get him to settle. It can literally take up to 2hrs to get him to sleep and often I think he's just dropped off for him to spring out of bed a minute later and start bouncing on the bed.

In the old days he'd be asleep in his cot by 7pm but now I or my DH can still be up in his room at 9pm trying to get him to sleep.

I've tried making his bedtime later, putting him back to bed constantly, ignoring him and nothing works! Any tips would be gratefully recieved!

DD (2.1) isn't in a bed yet so no advice there but I've had some great success with cutting her bedtime routine down to a strict 30 mins (5 mins tops for bath) on the advice of a sleep consultant. She used to bugger around for ages; these days it still takes up to 20 mins (30 on a bad night) but there are clear signs she is drifting off. Worth a try?

Does he still have a rest during the day? Could he not be tired enough at bedtime?- they do change pretty quickly. I've just cut DD's (2.3) nap back to 45 mins and (fingers crossed) she's going straight to sleep again at bedtime.

Well this could be total coincidence but I changed the routine last night and he went off fairly quickly.
Instead of waiting until 7pm for his bath, a quick story and lights out, we had a bath at 6.30pm and then 15 minutes of stories and quiet time. I then got him to shut his curtains and get into bed.
I also put a small clock in there so I could see how long it was taking him to settle and I wonder if the hythmic tick tocking of it also helped him drift off. I just stood at the end of the bed not really engaging with him at all but hopefully reassured him that I was there.
Fingers crossed it works tonight because I was over the moon last night that I had got my evening back!

Any chance of putting him back in cot - personally I feel 2 is far too early. I left it till nearly 3 with DS1 and now DS2 is such a handful and does wake I have decided to leave him in there. At least I know he's safe too. I dropped the cot to nearly floor level and put new screws in - works fantastic and no way can he escape.